ACETIC ACID AS A SOLVENT OT CANTHARIDINE. 
417 
io applying to any wrinkled or jointed part, where the ordinary 
blister would be likely to be displaced, prompt vesication, 
and safety from strangury. Any of these properties would 
be sufficient individually to recommend its employment in 
preference to the other preparations. 
Another vesicating collodion may be procured from the 
volatile oil of mustard, which could be obtained cheaply 
from the mustard bran. The following formula seems to 
work "well 
Take Volatile oil of mustard, l'5j; 
Collodion, f 5vj; 
Acetic acid, gtt. xx. 
The acid is still retained in this formula with regard to the 
texture of the film. But the above collodion is not so good 
as that made from cantharides or the mylabris, it being more 
painful and not so certain in its action. For rubefacient 
purposes these collodions may be diluted with a further 
amount of collodion, and are then everything that could be 
desired,—the active principle being in a state of perfect so¬ 
lution. The Emjdastrum Califaciens of the Dublin Pharma¬ 
copoeia w r ould be a bad preparation were it not that the pro¬ 
cess of remelting the Emjplastrum Cantharidis amongst the 
pitch literally stews all the virtue out of the fly particles. In 
conclusion, we may state that our remarks are not built upon 
our own experience, but from practical applications which 
these preparations have been subjected to, by competent 
judges, on an extended scale. 
[It is hardly necessary for us to state that the above article, 
extracted from the Pliar mac eutical Journal , refers to the human 
subject. But there is much that is suggestive in it, and 
which by alteration might be made applicable to veterinary 
practice.] 
ACETIC ACID AS A SOLVENT OE CANTHARIDINE. 
At a recently held Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society, 
the President, Mr. P. Squire, remarked that it had been 
shown by experiments made some time ago, that acetic acid 
was not a good solvent of cantharidine. 
Dr. Redwood said such was the case with weak acetic 
acid, but not with the strongest acid. 
, Air. Deane observed that Pharmaceutists had for many 
years been under a misapprehension with regard to the use 
